


Champion No Longer

by Wayward_Chronicler



Series: Chosen of The Crown [5]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Warriors, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Wiedźmin | The Witcher (Video Game), Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: AU, Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Cast in order of appearence, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Gen, Influenced heavily by The Witcher, hunting monsters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-18
Updated: 2017-05-18
Packaged: 2018-11-02 00:40:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10933386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wayward_Chronicler/pseuds/Wayward_Chronicler
Summary: Link of Outsetwasa Chosen of Hyrule. Trained and conditioned from childhood in swordplay and simple sorcery to serve The Royal Family as champions against the threats to The Kingdom. Though he still hunts the monsters and evils of the world, he no longer wears the blue and white tunic of the champions.  His latest contract has him once more on the shores of Lake Hylia to put an old ghost to rest.





	Champion No Longer

The drizzle pelted Link’s cloak as he walked slowly to see what the crowd had gathered to see. Standing on a crate by the stable was a man in rags. “Oh, how we have all been here before. The cycles upon cycles the goddesses have put us through. But every time, we return, as they put forth the trials again and again. But look around us! Even the patience of a goddess runs out.” He snarled, eyeing the throng before him. “Long ago, we did not just wait with patience and piety for The Chosen Hero to appear. We sought him out! And that gave rise to the so-called ‘Chosen’…” He shook a finger. “Where man thought they could defy the divine! That was the last offense in a long line.” The crowd murmured as he let the words sink in. “An age ago, the Royal Family claimed to be descended of the goddess Hylia. And what did we do? We did not question this could be a trick of Demise?! The demon long dead, but we still see his vile influence in our world. The blins, the curse that creates the stals. The lizalfos. Instead, we bent our knees. If they were divine and testing us, then we have truly failed!” He scanned the group, Link noticing his eyes rest on him for a moment. “And so they tested us again! In a less subtle manner. There was the scourge of dark magic that cleansed Ikana from all but memory! And so The Hero appeared there, stopping disaster as the Golden Goddesses sought to give us a second chance! But what did we do with the arts of Ikana? Did we banish it from our world? No. Instead we studied it! Embraced it like a whore!” He smiled sickly, rotting yellow teeth sticking out of chapped lips. “And that lead to the evil that was The Interlopers! Bending light and dark into ways not done since Demise walked this earth! We were right to hunt them. To seek out every dark mage and witch and burn them at the stake. But we had still failed and The Hero of Legend came once more to right our wrongs on the orders of The Goddesses.” He inhaled sharply then, through his teeth, hissing.

“And we chose to spare and embrace their arts. To not strangle their vile offspring in their cribs like they so rightly deserved!” he ranted. “And their disease still follows us. Our children. And our children’s children. Some carry their tainted blood, waiting for an instant to awaken… But these all happened so long ago. And the patience of our divine mothers has run out…”

 

“Geez, what a jackass,” one of the locals muttered. Link glanced in their direction.

“Why listen then?” another asked.

“Well, interesting to get some local news,” a woman said. Link instantly recognized the voice and moved closer to her. “Even if so much of that history is boarshit.” He recognized the worn deep red cloak, and the grips of her scimitars still visible under it.

“And how do I know you’re not lyin’ about it?”

“Magic is just energy. It isn’t inherently good or evil. It’s all the intention behind it that makes it that way.”

“And the truth behind The Interlopers is far more complex than he makes it sound,” Link added. The locals looked at him then. He was not dressed in the bright blue tunic any more. Instead, he wore a deep green quilted tunic with an olive drab leather brigandine over it and chainmail spaulders and rerebrace on his shoulders and upper arms. On his back was not the white sword and shield crafted in the Tower of Hera, but rather a steel subrosian arming sword and silver longsword all the way from Termina. The shield was one once used by a knight of Hyrule, bearing the mark of Farore upon it in place of the crimson loftwing. The two local men however were focused on what hung around his neck. It was not the old charm marking him as a Chosen of Farore, but rather a stylized twilit wolf with glowing emeralds for eyes. The two men quickly turned away and left the gathering, fright on their faces. Link’s ears caught their fearful muttering as they left.

He looked to the gerudo, her hood and a veil over her face, leathers and chainmail. Her stature suggested she was from one of the northern tribes as opposed to the taller and more muscular ones from the far western tribes that wandered the desert, even now with Ganondorf having united them under a single banner. “Surprised you’re still here,” Aveil said, glancing at him as the man continued his ranting.

“Surprised you are too.”

“Got a job.” He kept quiet though mentioning who it was from. Even though the events that they’d faced together recently made him feel he could trust her, he still had to be cautious. She had been working for someone in The Tribes after all. “You?”

“Waiting for the guy who’ll take me up the river on my job. He’s late. Probably because of the recent fighting.” She looked at him, golden eyes locking with his cobalt blue ones. “Or it could be the zora. All the bodies being dumped into the river can’t be good for them and is attracting things like drowners and ghouls. And those things are getting bolder too.”

“Like the poes I fought before we met.” He recalled the memory. One of the few times Cia had been let out of The Tower, as long as a Chosen had been with her.

“Oh?”

“It was massive. And split into dozens of smaller ones when me and my friend finally stopped it.” They both looked up at the man as he chastised a gerudo. He saw Aveil’s eyes narrow and her hand twitch, ready to go to one of her scimitars, or maybe the hookshot to pull him off the crate and impale him. “Saw a couple too in No Man’s Land. Always around the trees with the hanged traitors and deserters.”

“So those things exist.” She shook her head. “Heard some rumors from my sisters about them. Kind of wondering what it might be like to face one.”

“Get help if you have to. Especially from a mage if you have those.”

“No. I’d have to get a tribe witch to help me.” She smirked behind her veil, a strand of bright red hair fell in her face from under her hood. “I’m not on good terms with sorceresses like you are.” Link frowned at her remark. He wasn’t so sure about two of the three he knew. The third however made him sigh. He could really use her next to him right now. “Don’t worry about me though, pretty boy. I know a couple witches who owe me a favor. And there’s a rito scout I worked with in Termina who travels the desert a lot.” She glanced around the group once more. “Well, I spy my ride up the river. So no more listening to a madman for me.”

“Safe travels, Aveil.”

“You too, Link.” She turned to go, but stopped and spun on her heel to face him. “And thanks for telling me about that stuff. Though, I’d like to hear more. Especially about The Conjunction. I’m getting the feeling you left a lot out.”

“I did.” He hadn’t told her all the details, such as the fact his companions were actually not of this world during it. “But you left a lot out of your time in the Castor Wilds and Spool Swamp.” He smirked slightly. “Maybe for the same reasons.”

She chuckled a bit and turned around, vanishing into the crowd. Link looked back to the man on the box as he had whipped himself into a frenzy and continued his rant.

 

“We’ve already seen it!” the madman shouted. “The giant of fire and rage in the west has marched his legions into the Golden Kingdom! Having found the swords of Destruction and Demise! He seeks to turn our homes to ash. He’s but the first sign. The oceans will open! Phantoms of the depths, the bodies lost to the tides will walk this world once more, but no hero will come this time!” He pointed at the crowd. “And we are the ones to blame for we have failed the trials of The Goddesses! And as the world begins to burn! Dark portents open to the worlds of spirits to take their pound of flesh! The Wild Hunt! They ride in the glow of dusk! Lead by their mad cackling king to kidnap our children! To carry them off into the dark as payment for our sins!” He stopped, seeing the crowd trembling at his words. “But all this, is just the last sign for the end of our world. For the fall of the Golden Kingdom… In the blasted lands, where the giant’s horde of evil fights The Kingdom’s soldiers and false-heroes. The Wolf of Farore. Her favorite pet hunter has howled in twilight of our world and walks among us in his human guise! And he heralds a second conjunction! They’re coming. The Golden Goddesses are returning. They’re returning to cleanse this world they once created!”

He’d heard enough of the man’s rantings, eyes narrowing as he focused on the job he’d been given. Link walked away, finding Epona in the stable and a poster on the door with his face. A sizeable reward was below it for anyone giving information that would lead to his capture. He grabbed it and tore it off in a single move before heading to his mare.

 

* * *

 

He knelt at the base of the amphitheater, using a shattered and fallen column’s base as a table as he pulled his leather roll-up off his back and planted it down. In a single swift move, he opened it. Inside were the tools of his trade. Oils, venoms, elixirs and potions sat safely stowed, waiting for him to pull them to use. Given all the work he’d done earlier that day, he knew exactly what he was up against and would have to have everything prepared before midnight. The sun was setting over Lake Hylia, causing the water to shimmer and reflect as Link pulled one of the oils out. In silence, he reached on his back. He gripped the silver longsword and pulled it from its scabbard to place carefully in front of him with the chosen oil.

Link carefully applied the oil to the longsword. Once done, he coated six silver bolts in it and stowed the oil back in the roll. He took two elixirs then, labeled Lupine Sense and Kaepora’s Vigil and poured them into a larger bottle. Once done, he corked the bottle and shook it until the bright green and blues of the two elixirs turned black. He uncorked it and placed it to his lips. One would give him the senses of a wolf, including their ability to see lingering spirits. The other would keep him awake, alert and allow him to see in the dark.

 

As the fluid went down his throat, he felt his insides chill. It took all his effort to not bend over as it went to work almost immediately. His skin paled and some of his veins were now quite visible to anyone who looked right at him. Though not as sickly and toxic as he had some times after consuming the potions of his trade, it would still be enough for many ordinary people to look at him and think him diseased or cursed. Link stuffed the now empty bottle away and pulled two knives from the leather. He placed each of them in sheaths on the scabbard’s baldric on his chest before pulling a bag of silver dust out of the wrap. He then pulled two of his smoke bombs and carefully opened them to pour the bag into them. Once done he pulled the hidden knife from his bracer to inspect briefly before returning it. Everything was ready. He reached up to the wolf charm around his neck, but stopped. Link let out a sigh and bowed his head as his fingers fell away from it. There was no one to talk to at the moment. Even if he could contact the twins or anyone at The Tower, what would he say?

There was someone though. And the hour was right. He lifted it from his neck once more and looked into its glowing emerald eyes. Link coiled his fingers around it then and closed his own eyes. “Hey,” he said in his mind. “Are you there?” He didn’t hear any response. “Midna?”

“Hang on!” he heard. “I hear you!” There was a flicker of light and shadow and he saw her. The twili’s hair was down and in one of her hands was the small silver piece of jewelry she’d wear in place of a proper crown with her hairpins. In the other, floating on the tip of her index finger, a dark teal crystal with pieces of shadow orbiting it. The exhausted look on her face made him wince a little.

“I didn’t wake you, did I?”

“You did, actually,” she said with a snap of her fingers. The jewelry and hairpins vanished in a flicker of black squares. “Was hoping to sleep in a little more when I heard the crystal rattling. Been a long few days here.”

“Sorry, I can-”

She shook her head and closed her eyes. “No, it’s fine. I wanted to talk to you anyways.”

“You did?”

“Yeah. I finished with that book you gave me.” Midna opened her eyes and looked right at him. “And I don’t think we should talk about it through magic. Especially since we only have such a little bit to talk. But I’m planning to hop back over. I’ll return it and give you the translations.” In spite of her exhaustion, he saw her smirk a little. “You’d better be grateful for all that work!”

He chuckled a little. “Believe me, I am.”

“You’re lookin’ a little toxic there. You on a stakeout or something? It’s not another griffin? Or is it one of those gohmas?”

“Shadow hag actually from what the contract I got said.”

“Oh…” Her red eyes darted to the right before she reached up to rub one of them. “Those things can be nasty. I know the kind of curses that create them. Never used them though. Trivial to dispel if the host hasn’t died. You find someone then?”

He shook his head. “You remember that amphitheater on Lake Hylia?” Link saw her nod. “Well, it’s been brought out by the bloodshed from the war I think. When I dropped by earlier after getting the contract, it looked like the catacombs was a tomb for someone, but the water from the lake’s washed it all out to sea. I did a little looking around under the water, but no body.”

“So you’re going to have to deal with a very angry ghost that turns invisible if you look at it without your lupine sense. And you can use that trick I taught you in the sewers to bind it. After all, it’s a shadow-binding sign.”

“No it’s…” He sighed and looked down, eyes shifting to the left.

“Oh. You’re just nervous?”

“Ugh, that obvious?”

She laughed a little and shook her head. “You’re doing that thing again. The little, looking down and away thing. You always do that when you want to say something but don’t actually want to say it.”

It made Link sigh, but smile a little himself. “Great.”

“Well, got a few more minutes I think before the worlds are out of alignment. How’ve you been doing since I left? Still on the run?”

“Yeah. Was in the South Seas for a while. Got a silver sword to go with the subrosian one. Helped some people who got captured by slavers too when I got back to the mainland. But it’s getting worse.”

“Well, you did jump into this without much of a plan.”

“My plan was to do what I had been trained for. The infiltration and sabotage. Pathfinding, even assassination if I had to. But more I see around me, there’s so many people who are suffering because of this.” He slowly looked back at her. “I’m seeing that if I try and do this if I was still working for The Crown, I might make things even worse. But…” He bowed his head. “But like I just said. This is what I was trained for.”

“Well, you still have my help. The Twilight might be completely out of the way for Hyrule, but given our histories and some of the things going on here, I’d not be surprised if we got dragged into it somehow. I don’t want to see a war become some extradimensional affair.” She let out a sharp exhale. “I actually just got back from Lorule to make sure things were okay there. Don’t want another mess like what happened back on Death Mountain.”

Recalling the events of about a month ago made him smile a little. In spite of all that had happened recently, it had been good to have an ally next to him. “Everyone okay there?”

“Yeah. Was good to see everyone. And no incidents there. Just about back on their feet from the famine and Conjunction. And only in a couple short years.”

“Gives me a little hope that Hyrule might be able to recover from this. If it survives. But that’s the real trick, isn’t it? War’s brought out some new monsters we’ve never seen before. To say nothing of how The Kingdom and The Tribes seem to keep escalating things. They burn a village to the ground, we massacre them in the Castor Wilds. We capture a keep and execute one of their generals, they start taking fewer prisoners. They start using their pyromancers and witches as artillery, we unleash a tower mage that levels one of their keeps.” He winced a little using that last example, knowing exactly which of the twins had done that. “And now it’s at the point that neither side sees people just trying to survive this war. This us versus them mentality.”

Midna folded her arms and leaned back a little, crossing her legs as she sat on her bed. “So, what would your Hero of Legend do?”

He was quiet for nearly a full minute, looking down. He opened his eyes even, seeing the lake before him. The sun setting in the West and he could see smoke to the far north, likely from more fighting. “He'd find a way,” Link finally said. “I'm not sure how, but he'd find a way. And I was told so many times that I was one of Hyrule's Heroes. Even when we started with some of the worse actions in the war. We were told to trust the wisdom of the Royal Family. But there are no stories where The Hero had to stand up against the very people he's supposed to be protecting. To try and save them from themselves.”

“But you said he'd find a way.”

“Yeah. But I also said I don't know how he'd do it.”

“Mmm.” She cocked her head and looked up at a ceiling he couldn’t see. After a stifled yawn, she looked right back at him. “Well, from all the stories you told me about him during The Conjunction, he sounds as stubborn as you sometimes. Sure you'll think of something.”

“I can't do this alone, Midna.”

“Never said that. Just that you'd think of something.” The familiar impish smirk appeared on her lips. “Or I'll think of something and tell you what to do.”

“Heh. Like the time with the bottle in Ikana?”

"Exactly!"

"I'm wondering if I should've kept it corked," he half-muttered.

"And that's why I took it with me.” She yawned then. “Well, much fun as these little chats are, I'm going back to bed now.”

“All because I woke you, huh?”

“Well, that and our time's about up.”

“How can you tell?”

“It's taking me more and more magic to keep this tiny little door between worlds open so we can talk. Meaning the sun has almost completely set in your world. And it's getting me tired.”

“Heh. Alright. See you later then?”

She laughed then. “See you later! Maybe even sooner than you realize.” And with that, she vanished from his mind.

Link opened his eyes in time to see the last flickers of twilight cover Lake Hylia and the war torn fields of the southern provinces of Hyrule. He dropped the wolf charm around his neck, the chain clinking as it landed against his chest. Link took a deep breath and smiled slightly. It did not last long, but he felt his nerves calmed and set to work making a dinner before kneeling before his sword and waiting in silence for the cursed spirit to appear.

 

* * *

 

“Are you my champion?” he heard a woman say.

He opened his eyes, to see Lake Hylia below; the full moon reflected in its water. Link knelt with his back to the gallery. The silver longsword was before him, ready to be grabbed if he needed it. Link hoped he wouldn’t though. Before he could speak though the voice continued.

“You carry her shield. But are you here to save me, or are you her wolf, set loose upon the world in the twilight of the gods?”

“I am neither,” he said. It was cold around him, in spite of it being the middle of summer. He could see his breath clearly. Link resisted the urge to actually look back at who was speaking to him, but his instincts told him it was something no longer human. “Times have changed, miss. A great many things have…” He felt the air grow even colder than before. His fingers on his legs coiled into fists and he continued to control his breathing.

“Then why are you here?”

He sighed and slowly turned to face them. “Because you’ve asked that question several times before. You’ve asked countless others if they are your champion. How many have said yes?”

“…You… You’re the first I’ve asked…”

“Are you sure?” He looked clearly at them. Instantly he was reminded of her. She was even wearing the same dark robe she had at her grandfather’s funeral with the hood up. The wolf on its chain danced as Link thought he spotted a moth or two emerge from her sleeve.

Her head looked down on it and she inhaled sharply, stepping away. “You’re one of them…” She reached out, pointing at the charm around his neck. “…Traitor… You’re a traitor to everything Hyrule stands for! Interloper! Heretic!” Her features, though mostly hidden, became monstrous. Her eyes glowed and the robe became smoke.

 

Link grabbed the longsword as the woman turned to four trails of shadows. Had he not consumed his elixir earlier, he’d not have seen the smoky shadows that were the shadow hag’s form. The only evidence that she had been there in the first place was the moths that seemingly appeared out of thin air there and fluttered around in the moonlight. Link watched carefully around, gripping the blade. There was no sign of his quarry, but the charm shook gently. He turned in a circle, watching for any hint of the shadow hag. A second later, he felt his charm rattling and clinking on its chain and saw a trail of smoke darting up the gallery. Two more circled around, coming for him. As they grew close, he tossed one of the smokebombs at them. The glass sphere shattered and filled the air with silver dust and grey smoke. The two trails approaching him avoided it, while the fourth he’d not kept track of jumped off the ground from behind him and sliced into his side. Link spun in pain in time to see another one come for him. He swung his blade out, flat edge to the shadow to parry. The silver clattered against dark magic and he moved into the cloud of silver dust. Another came for him, but he saw it coming. He sidestepped it and saw a swarm of moths approaching. As they did, he quickly threw his hand out, fingers arranged in a sign. A stream of sparks and fire erupted from them. Each moth quickly caught fire and they swarmed around one another into a fireball that fell onto the ruined stage.

The wolf around his neck danced and rattled furiously. Link dropped his right hand and the sparks vanished to grip the blade in a defensive posture as he turned around. The shadow hag was visible for an instant in his eyes; the dark robe was nothing but shadow and smoke, whipping in an ethereal wind while its eyes glowed under long and faded and messy gold hair. It looked like a pale fresh corpse. It flashed away, breaking into four shadows once more. Another shadow swung into him, knocking him onto his back. The smoke and shadow formed over him, the spirit’s face appearing and glaring down at him. Icy smoky fingers gripped his throat.

“You should never have come here, Interloper…” it spat, voice echoing in his mind. A pair of moths slipped out of its mouth and fluttered away. It raised its other hand, but before it could swing, Link slipped out of its grip in a gust of green wind and magic. The hag let out a piercing scream as it looked to where he was.

Again, it lunged, body becoming shadows. Link sidestepped it, swinging his sword into it. He hit nothing but air and dispersed the shadows as it reformed nearby. Out of the corner of his eye though, he was able to see it forming. His fingers flicked into another sign. This time orange bands danced around in his palm and he threw it out. A black shadow with occasional orange bands flickered around. The moment the hag moved into it though, the bands launched upward and grabbed it. It shrieked angrily as Link swept his sword into it. This time the blade felt like it was slicing through thick fabrics on a line in his hands. It let out one more scream as Link’s return swipe made the spirit turn to smoke, moths and ash that flew up into the moonlight.

 

He caught his breath, panting heavily before dropping the sword and clutching his side where it had wounded him. Link dropped to his knees and pulled a red potion from his belt to drink. In moments he felt his insides twist as it went to work, mending him. Link wiped the sweat from his face and let himself lie on the cold stone next to the remains of the hag. He clenched his teeth and eyes shut as he regained feeling in his neck from the potion.

 

* * *

 

He barely slept that night after the shadow hag was slain due to the cocktail of potions. He lay on his back, watching the stars until the glow of dawn began to peek over the horizon. He could hear birds and Epona’s occasional snorts. With a deep breath, the hylian hexer sat up. He got to his feet and picked up the silver sword from the ground to sheathe. He looked to the shadow hag’s remains then. Embers flickered along the cloth that had not vanished with the rest of its form. Among its ashes were dead moths and a few bones and teeth. Grabbing a simple cloth bag out of Epona’s saddlebags, he gathered them and attached them to the hook on the mare’s side.

He climbed into the saddle and gently nudged Epona in the sides to ride out of the ruined amphitheater. She soon broke into a gallop and headed north for the zora keep, the contract complete.

**Author's Note:**

> **May 19, 2017: Hyrule doesn't need another hero. It needs a professional.**


End file.
